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Summertown Studio opens in Somerton Park

Summertown Studio is a beautiful, curated and multi-faceted retail space, coffee cart, co-working and events business run by the inimitable Porch Sessions team.

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Words and pictures: Johnny von Einem

The roller door is up at Summertown Studio – the mixed-use creative space, opened by Sharni Honor and Sarah Bradford of Porch Sessions, that combines retail, co-working, cellar door, coffee and events into one deceptively large suburban shed.

Visitors will first encounter De Groot Coffee Co, set up in a van out front of the property, which will operate Wednesday through Sunday, selling quality coffee and very good Portuguese tarts.

Through the open garage door, curated products from a range of small businesses are given shelf space throughout the shop. Racks of new and vintage clothes sit across from potted plants for sale, jewellery and ceramics from small makers are thoughtfully laid out on trestle tables, as are selected books and vinyl.

On the other side of the corrugated back wall, a second space is given over to co-working, featuring a run of individual desks separated by bookshelves for long-term residencies, and a long table with single seats available for hire for hot-deskers just looking to set up for a day.

A long pergola space running parallel to the co-working zone offers visitors and co-workers alike a place to sit, and a glowing Porch Sessions sign at the back of the property hints at the space being set up to host live music events.

But still, there’s more – McLaren Vale winery Hither & Yon have also been given space for an office and small cellar door at the back of the venue. Their operating hours are still to be determined.

L-R: Sharni Honor and Sarah Bradford, with good mate Craig (seated)

Summertown Studio is a unique venue for Somerton Park, and for metro Adelaide, encapsulating the aesthetic punters have come to love from the Porch Sessions brand.

Both Sharni and Sarah are local to the area (the “Brighton Bubble,” as Sharni fondly describes it), and, after leaving their former office at Karma & Crow (to make way for upcoming small bar Plume), the two decided to build the kind of venue they wanted to have close by.

“We seem to have to travel quite far to get to places that do similar kinds of things – whether it be into the city, or it was Karma & Crow, that was the next best thing,” Sarah says.

“But there was nothing in that area that services events, music things, a cellar door, and just a place to hang out, come and work, and co-working.”

“Particularly starting Porch Sessions, which started in Brighton originally,” Sharni continues, “there was such a thirst for events and just for anything creative and slightly cool to happen in the area. The more and more that grew in this space, it created the climate for something to happen.”

Craig pats are free, seven days

While the space is now the physical home of Porch Sessions and Porchland, Sharni says having a long-term home will not affect the nature of the brands.

“The whole business was built like a floating business and that was always my favourite thing about it,” she says.

“I love that it’s constantly reinventing the wheel in terms of location, and I guess how we see Porch feeding into this space is not only to get all of the Persian rugs out of my shed at home – that’s gonna be great – but this will be another arm to a series that we run.

“So amidst doing stuff in backyards, [and] still at the cellar door down south at Hither & Yon, then we can run a warehouse series… I think it’s going to work really nicely.”

Summertown Studio is open seven days a week, with the De Groot coffee cart operating Wednesday through Sunday.